Our Week in the Forest...

It was so lovely to welcome our Little Forest Folk-ers back after the Christmas break and hear all the wonderful things they have done, places they have visited and presents they have received from Father Christmas. Everyone arrived, excited to be in the forest, and this was made doubly exciting as we had a new area to explore. To minimise our environmental impact, we have moved our basecamp to a different area of Fulham Palace Gardens this week. The children loved exploring the new area, building dens, using logs as racing cars and balancing planks between fallen trees to create walk ways. The big question of the week was where the new mud kitchen could be? There are a few choices, but the children are as yet undecided. In the meantime, they have used the mud kitchen pots and pans around the site, setting up home under the branches of a large tree and creating a camp hideout inside a small bush on site.

On Wednesday we took a trip to the Fulham Palace Museum. The children were fascinated by some of the artefacts, commenting that one of their friends who was not there that day would really love this! There were flaps to lift, things to touch and smell and clothes to try on. One of the favourite exhibits was a model of Fulham Palace. Some of the children recognised it immediately and they were fascinated to look through the tiny archway to see the water fountain. When they had finished looking in the main exhibition room, the children excitedly explored the rest of the palace. They were interested to find an old mangle and laughed when an educator explained that in the olden days these were used to wash clothes as there were no washing machines. In each new room the children found something new to look at and eventually they found the door that took them out to where the real fountain was.

On Thursday the children and educators enjoyed creating music in the forest with instruments and singing. The children sang lots of the Christmas songs they have learnt over the last few weeks, mingled with ‘The wheels on the bus’, ‘How many trees in the park?’ and ‘Mary had a little lamb’. They enjoyed experimenting with the different sounds the instruments made, and we all joined in together singing ‘Jingle Bells’ and ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas!’. Throughout the morning different children came over to see what was going on and to try out the jingle bells, shakers and xylophone. Some of the children then went on to create their own rhythm section using sticks and logs. We look forward to seeing this develop into the Little Forest Folk woodland band in weeks to come!

It's been a wonderful start to the new year and we’re very excited for the adventures that 2019 will bring!